Concussion (released 12 Feb) could throw American football – the sport Smith and his sons love – into turmoil. But as the star reveals, this film was too important not to make

“This is definitely the most incendiary project I’ve ever worked on,” Will Smith said last year when he revealed he would be playing the Nigeria-born pathologist accused of trying to destroy the game of American football. Concussion – the story of Dr Bennet Omalu’s battle to protect players from long-term brain damage – has been called “the NFL’s greatest nightmare”.

“This type of film is an ‘inconvenient truth’,” Smith said. “I was profoundly conflicted. I love football. I grew up in Philly with my Eagles. There was a part of me that did not want to be the guy who said playing football could cause brain damage. I have a lot of friends that are players and owners, and I didn’t want to be that guy.”

What changed Smith’s mind was sitting down with the real-life hero of Concussion, Dr Omalu.

“When I sat down to meet with Bennet, I was like, ‘Please say something to make me not take this movie,’” says Smith. “I have two sons – my oldest [Trey] was a big-time football player. I was concerned about him breaking his leg – but my greatest concern when he was playing was spinal injury. There was not one conversation about long-term neurological repercussions. How could I possibly be a parent and have four years of football and have no information? For me, as a parent, I just felt I had to make this movie.”

Smith says the deal was sealed when Dr Omalu told him how difficult it was to be an outsider taking on such a powerful US institution as the NFL.

“He talked about being a young boy growing up in Nigeria,” Smith says. “This is a man who was born during an air raid. His mother was hit by shrapnel when he was being delivered. He said he believed America was the place where God sent all of his favourite people, and he never wanted anything more than to be accepted as an American. For that man to be the person who discovered chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and had to bring the information to America about their favourite sport, that conflict was so powerful. He had to deliver painful information to a group of people that he had a deep desire to be accepted by. That’s a hero’s journey.

The real deal: Dr Omalu explained to Will Smith how difficult it was to be an outsider taking on such a powerful US institution as the NFLCredit:
Getty

“What was beautiful is he couldn’t understand how knowing could be a bad thing. And even today he struggles with that. What would make you reject knowing? For me – I was looking at his eyes while he was telling that story – I knew after that meeting that I would be telling his story to the world.”

Having watched Dr Omalu work, Smith describes him as “a deeply religious man. When he’s performing an autopsy, it’s a spiritual experience for him. He has a wonderful sixth sense about trying to figure out how a person died. He’ll go through their clothes and try to get them to help him figure out how they died. It’s a beautiful thing to watch.”

But, as the film shows, the NFL did not take such a rosy view of Dr Omalu’s work. Although it may have since put its weight behind his findings, at first it proved very resistant to his evidence that playing football might cause brain damage. Does Smith believe the NFL conspired to silence the Nigerian doctor?

“We debated this heavily,” Smith said last year. “I didn’t want it to be true. I don’t believe in bad guys. I believe when our survival is at stake, we make bad decisions. I’m reserving judgement on a cover-up. The real enemy is the lack of information about how CTE works. I think the movie starts to change that.

“I love the NFL. It’s not an anti-NFL movie. My belief is that the information will only make it better for all of us.”

Concussion is released in cinemas nationwide on Friday 12 February 2016.